hello -
I've got an issue of GuitarWorld Acoustic magazine, which I am liking. There are a few good easy songs to learn. Specifically the April/May 2005 issue with Ben Harper and Jack Johnson on the cover.
For the easy songs, they provide the lyrics, chords, and a strumming pattern. One of the songs is John Denver's 'take me home country road'.
For the basic strumming pattern, they have 4 quarter notes with each one designated with a downstroke. Now it shows that this same pattern repeats throughout the song, but on top of the second and fourth quarter notes there is a ">" symbol. This same symbol shows up in a more complicated strum pattern for JAck Johnson's "Taylor", but it is in different spots within the rythm.
Can someone tell me what the significance of the ">" is ??
I'm sure it is a simple answer, but it is driving me nuts.
It doesn't seem like it should indicate a chord change, that wouldnt match the chords as they are listed with the lyrics.
I don't know that symbol, but thats a song I play and what I do thoughout most of it is DDUDDUDD but on the up just catching the high e with the back of my thumb ( that how I strum back of middle finger and thumb) I guess there are others ways to
Can someone tell me what the significance of the ">" is ??
I'm not sure, but I think it means you're supposed to take a downstroke.
"Trying is the first step towards failure." 
IN the books I have, a box like
|_| inveverted is the down stroke and this > with the tip up is an upstroke
John M
That's an accent symbol - you'll see it in standard music notation. The note or chord played at that point is emphasized more than the others.
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
You're right 300m, the upstrokes and downstrokes are indicated with the shapes you described. THis is in addition to that. The accent stroke that Noteboat refers to makes sense. I'll try that. Thanks!!
I think they use |_| for downstroke, ^ for upstroke & > for accent.
Thanks noteboat, I did not know about the accent symbol. My instructor showed me that last night :)
John M
